Pros and Cons>>> Proxy Servers

I just started doing some research on the pros and cons of the use of
proxy servers. According to some articles they mention that proxy servers can
improve network security and network performance. I'm thinking about adding
one or two to my dsl connection but I'm not too sure. Can someone give
alittle more insight and the pros and cons on the use of proxy servers.
Thanks,

From: "Speedy G."

| I just started doing some research on the pros and cons of the use of
| proxy servers. According to some articles they mention that proxy servers can
| improve network security and network performance. I'm thinking about adding
| one or two to my dsl connection but I'm not too sure. Can someone give
| alittle more insight and the pros and cons on the use of proxy servers.
| Thanks,
|

This really is Off Topic for WinME discussions.

Forget about the idea !

It will add NOTHING but overhead to your DSL connection. A Proxy server would ONLY be
useful if...

The Proxy was on the Internet
You had many nodes (like the maximum of 253 LAN nodes behind a Router)

If you used a Proxy server on the Internet (not on the LAN) then when you connected to an
Internet site using said Proxy server, the web site would see the IP address of the Proxy
Server and nnot the WAN address you have.

If you have many nodes behind a Proxy server then the Proxy Server's cache can/may reduce
the amount of LAN traffic going to the WAN by caching content on the Proxy Server. Say for
example node 1 goes to Google. Then node 53 goes to Google. Node 1 cause Google to to be
cached on the server such that when node 53 went to Google, it got cached data on the Proxy
server instead of the having to go though to the actual Google web site. hus the traffic
going from the LAN to the WAN is reduced.

For a home system, neither of the above scenarios would benefit from a Proxy Server. Indeed
by using a Proxy Server another "hop" would be introduced and one would experience a
decreased transfer rate due to the latency intoduced by going through the Proxy Server.

Now I have to ask...

Are you using a Cable/DSL Router such as the Linksys BEFSR41 to connect to your DSL based
Broadband ?

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

Indeed
by using a Proxy Server another "hop" would be introduced and one would experience a
decreased transfer rate due to the latency intoduced by going through the Proxy Server.

The last thing is to slow down my connection.


Are you using a Cable/DSL Router such as the Linksys BEFSR41 to connect to your DSL based
Broadband ?

I connect through a Versalink 327W.

I was interested in the fact that proxies mask your true IP address.




"David H. Lipman" wrote:

From: "Speedy G."

| I just started doing some research on the pros and cons of the use of
| proxy servers. According to some articles they mention that proxy servers can
| improve network security and network performance. I'm thinking about adding
| one or two to my dsl connection but I'm not too sure. Can someone give
| alittle more insight and the pros and cons on the use of proxy servers.
| Thanks,
|

This really is Off Topic for WinME discussions.

Forget about the idea !

It will add NOTHING but overhead to your DSL connection. A Proxy server would ONLY be
useful if...

The Proxy was on the Internet
You had many nodes (like the maximum of 253 LAN nodes behind a Router)

If you used a Proxy server on the Internet (not on the LAN) then when you connected to an
Internet site using said Proxy server, the web site would see the IP address of the Proxy
Server and nnot the WAN address you have.

If you have many nodes behind a Proxy server then the Proxy Server's cache can/may reduce
the amount of LAN traffic going to the WAN by caching content on the Proxy Server. Say for
example node 1 goes to Google. Then node 53 goes to Google. Node 1 cause Google to to be
cached on the server such that when node 53 went to Google, it got cached data on the Proxy
server instead of the having to go though to the actual Google web site. hus the traffic
going from the LAN to the WAN is reduced.

For a home system, neither of the above scenarios would benefit from a Proxy Server. Indeed
by using a Proxy Server another "hop" would be introduced and one would experience a
decreased transfer rate due to the latency intoduced by going through the Proxy Server.

Now I have to ask...

Are you using a Cable/DSL Router such as the Linksys BEFSR41 to connect to your DSL based
Broadband ?

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

From: "Speedy G."

Indeed
by using a Proxy Server another "hop" would be introduced and one would experience a
decreased transfer rate due to the latency intoduced by going through the Proxy Server.
|
| The last thing is to slow down my connection.
|
Are you using a Cable/DSL Router such as the Linksys BEFSR41 to connect to your DSL based
Broadband ?
|
| I connect through a Versalink 327W.
|
| I was interested in the fact that proxies mask your true IP address.
|


It won't happen unless you use a Proxy Server on the Internet. If you set up a local Proxy
Server it would still be behind the NAT Router and use the WAN IP address. Same as *any*
node behind the NAT Router.

IP = 70.23.234.201, OK, you are on Verizon DSL { just like me :-) }

As always I suggest blocking both TCP and UDP ports 135 ~ 139 and 445 on *any* SOHO Router.

However, I can't give you specific information on where to set that on the Westell 327W.

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

Thanks so much for the info.

IP = 70.23.234.201, OK, you are on Verizon DSL { just like me :-) }

This is my external IP. I was more concerned masking the internal
IP. It should change due to being dynamic, but it doesn't.


As always I suggest blocking both TCP and UDP ports 135 ~ 139 and 445 on *any* SOHO Router.

Versalink has firewall setting, but it does not elaborate.



Thanks David,






"David H. Lipman" wrote:

From: "Speedy G."

Indeed
by using a Proxy Server another "hop" would be introduced and one would experience a
decreased transfer rate due to the latency intoduced by going through the Proxy Server.
|
| The last thing is to slow down my connection.
|
Are you using a Cable/DSL Router such as the Linksys BEFSR41 to connect to your DSL based
Broadband ?
|
| I connect through a Versalink 327W.
|
| I was interested in the fact that proxies mask your true IP address.
|


It won't happen unless you use a Proxy Server on the Internet. If you set up a local Proxy
Server it would still be behind the NAT Router and use the WAN IP address. Same as *any*
node behind the NAT Router.

IP = 70.23.234.201, OK, you are on Verizon DSL { just like me :-) }

As always I suggest blocking both TCP and UDP ports 135 ~ 139 and 445 on *any* SOHO Router.

However, I can't give you specific information on where to set that on the Westell 327W.

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

From: "Speedy G."

| Thanks so much for the info.
|
IP = 70.23.234.201, OK, you are on Verizon DSL { just like me :-) }
|
| This is my external IP. I was more concerned masking the internal
| IP. It should change due to being dynamic, but it doesn't.
|
As always I suggest blocking both TCP and UDP ports 135 ~ 139 and 445 on *any* SOHO
Router.
|
| Versalink has firewall setting, but it does not elaborate.
|
| Thanks David,
|


You don't understand so I'll try to elaborate. { Long diatribe }

You have a NAT Router. NAT stands for Network Address Translation. Years ago those who
programmed the IP (Internet Protocol) saw a limitation in their address ranges possible to
be used around the world. The addresses were finite as compared to the possible number of
users who can have an address. Therefore certain ranges of IP addresses became what is
known as "private address ranges" that is they are NOT routable across Internet Routers and
can be used over and over and over again. [
http://www.stanford.edu/group/networ...teaddress.html ]

One very common address range is 192.168.0.0 ~ 192.168.255.255
Many Small Office Home Office (SOHO) Routers will allow 192.168.1.0 with a net mask of
255.255.255.0. Now assuming the IP address 192.168.1.255 is invalid and 192.168.1.1 is used
by the Router itself, that will allow 253 LAN nodes to be used behind a SOHO Router that
uses NAT. Therefore, the Router will get one WAN address. In your case the WAN address is
70.23.234.201 . The LAN nodes however will get an address from the Router via the Dynamic
Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and will be in the private address space. For example,
192.168.1.25 Now the NAT Router will automatically take all communications desired by
192.168.1.25 and convert that address to the WAN address. Since it is in the Private
Address Range no Internet web site can *ever* directly communicate with 192.168.1.25 and
must communicate with the Router's WAN address, 70.23.234.201 .

Now lets say there is a Proxy Server on the Internet (doubtfully free, more like a pay
service) but lets say the address of that server 155.17.202.12 and you want to communicate
via Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) TCP port 119. Assuming the Proxy Server will act
as a Proxy for TCP port 119, you would access the Proxy server and the Proxy server would
access the News Server [ the one you are on is MSNEWS.MICROSOFT.COM but you either don't
know about News Servers or prefer a the CDO Web Front end to the MS News Groups ] and when
you place a post the IP of the proxy Server would be used for the post, 155.17.202.12 ,
instead of the Verizon WAN address you are using, 70.23.234.201 .

Now In my previous paragraph I alluded to the fact that you are using the MS CDO Web front
end to the MS News Groups. You will have greater power of use and research if you DROP the
idea of using web pages to access News groups but use a News Client such as Outlook Express
to access News Groups.

The MS News Server has a name called; msnews.microsoft.com . The following fully qualified
URL will take your default News Client (most likely OE) and take you the MS News Server and
THIS News Group

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof...dowsme.general

Now Verizon has a News Server that YOU and I as subscribers can use that not only host many
of the Microsoft News Groups but tens of thousands of public News Groups. The public News
Group system is known as the User's Network or just UseNet.

The server is; news.verizon.net

It hosts as I said 10's of thousands of public News Groups. It also hosts the Verizon
PRIVATE News Groups. All News Groups have what is called a "hierarchy". For example, the
Microsoft News Group we are in is in the microsoft.* hierarchy. the PRIVATE Verizon News
Group are in the 0.verizon.* hierarchy and *only* Verizon subscribers can access them.

The following fully qualified URL will take your default News Client (aka; News Reader) to
the Verizon News Group that supports DSL and DSL Modems/Routers.

news://news.verizon.net/0.verizon.adsl

The only caveat is that you have to supply your Verizon Account Name and account Password to
be authenticated on the server to access that or any of the other 10's of thousands of News
Groups tat the server provides.

the good thing about going to the 0.verizon.adsl News Group is that there are numerous
other Verizon customers using the Westell 327W Modem+Router that can help you setup the
Router to support blocking both TCP and UDP ports 135 ~ 139 and 445 or anything else.

Realize all this is Off Topic for WinME discussions. It is a pure TCP/IP and Networking
discussion so if you want to research it further, I suggest going to a News Group where this
subject matter would be On Topic.

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 11:44:17 -0700, Speedy G. wrote:

On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 12:02:41 -0400, David H. Lipman wrote:

IP = 70.23.234.201, OK, you are on Verizon DSL { just like me :-) }

This is my external IP. I was more concerned masking the internal
IP. It should change due to being dynamic, but it doesn't.

As always I suggest blocking both TCP and UDP ports 135 ~ 139 and 445 on *any* SOHO Router.

Versalink has firewall setting, but it does not elaborate.

Along with David's suggestions about places to go to discuss TCP/IP issues,
there is one place pretty much dedicated to High Speed Internet (HSI), with
two forums you might find of interest, one for Verizon DSL customers,
another for Westell users:

http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/ilec,vz
http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/westell

--
Norman
~Win dain a lotica, En vai tu ri, Si lo ta
~Fin dein a loluca, En dragu a sei lain
~Vi fa-ru les shutai am, En riga-lint

Thanks for the details.
I will check out the mentioned links for more info.

"David H. Lipman" wrote:

From: "Speedy G."

| Thanks so much for the info.
|
IP = 70.23.234.201, OK, you are on Verizon DSL { just like me :-) }
|
| This is my external IP. I was more concerned masking the internal
| IP. It should change due to being dynamic, but it doesn't.
|
As always I suggest blocking both TCP and UDP ports 135 ~ 139 and 445 on *any* SOHO
Router.
|
| Versalink has firewall setting, but it does not elaborate.
|
| Thanks David,
|


You don't understand so I'll try to elaborate. { Long diatribe }

You have a NAT Router. NAT stands for Network Address Translation. Years ago those who
programmed the IP (Internet Protocol) saw a limitation in their address ranges possible to
be used around the world. The addresses were finite as compared to the possible number of
users who can have an address. Therefore certain ranges of IP addresses became what is
known as "private address ranges" that is they are NOT routable across Internet Routers and
can be used over and over and over again. [
http://www.stanford.edu/group/networ...teaddress.html ]

One very common address range is 192.168.0.0 ~ 192.168.255.255
Many Small Office Home Office (SOHO) Routers will allow 192.168.1.0 with a net mask of
255.255.255.0. Now assuming the IP address 192.168.1.255 is invalid and 192.168.1.1 is used
by the Router itself, that will allow 253 LAN nodes to be used behind a SOHO Router that
uses NAT. Therefore, the Router will get one WAN address. In your case the WAN address is
70.23.234.201 . The LAN nodes however will get an address from the Router via the Dynamic
Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and will be in the private address space. For example,
192.168.1.25 Now the NAT Router will automatically take all communications desired by
192.168.1.25 and convert that address to the WAN address. Since it is in the Private
Address Range no Internet web site can *ever* directly communicate with 192.168.1.25 and
must communicate with the Router's WAN address, 70.23.234.201 .

Now lets say there is a Proxy Server on the Internet (doubtfully free, more like a pay
service) but lets say the address of that server 155.17.202.12 and you want to communicate
via Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) TCP port 119. Assuming the Proxy Server will act
as a Proxy for TCP port 119, you would access the Proxy server and the Proxy server would
access the News Server [ the one you are on is MSNEWS.MICROSOFT.COM but you either don't
know about News Servers or prefer a the CDO Web Front end to the MS News Groups ] and when
you place a post the IP of the proxy Server would be used for the post, 155.17.202.12 ,
instead of the Verizon WAN address you are using, 70.23.234.201 .

Now In my previous paragraph I alluded to the fact that you are using the MS CDO Web front
end to the MS News Groups. You will have greater power of use and research if you DROP the
idea of using web pages to access News groups but use a News Client such as Outlook Express
to access News Groups.

The MS News Server has a name called; msnews.microsoft.com . The following fully qualified
URL will take your default News Client (most likely OE) and take you the MS News Server and
THIS News Group

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof...dowsme.general

Now Verizon has a News Server that YOU and I as subscribers can use that not only host many
of the Microsoft News Groups but tens of thousands of public News Groups. The public News
Group system is known as the User's Network or just UseNet.

The server is; news.verizon.net

It hosts as I said 10's of thousands of public News Groups. It also hosts the Verizon
PRIVATE News Groups. All News Groups have what is called a "hierarchy". For example, the
Microsoft News Group we are in is in the microsoft.* hierarchy. the PRIVATE Verizon News
Group are in the 0.verizon.* hierarchy and *only* Verizon subscribers can access them.

The following fully qualified URL will take your default News Client (aka; News Reader) to
the Verizon News Group that supports DSL and DSL Modems/Routers.

news://news.verizon.net/0.verizon.adsl

The only caveat is that you have to supply your Verizon Account Name and account Password to
be authenticated on the server to access that or any of the other 10's of thousands of News
Groups tat the server provides.

the good thing about going to the 0.verizon.adsl News Group is that there are numerous
other Verizon customers using the Westell 327W Modem+Router that can help you setup the
Router to support blocking both TCP and UDP ports 135 ~ 139 and 445 or anything else.

Realize all this is Off Topic for WinME discussions. It is a pure TCP/IP and Networking
discussion so if you want to research it further, I suggest going to a News Group where this
subject matter would be On Topic.

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm